Risk factors for child and adolescent occupants, bicyclists, and pedestrians in motorized vehicle collisions

The aim was to use similar population data to examine the relative risk of collision injury among children of different ages and adolescents involved in various collision types and to elucidate the possible risk factors related to road collisions involving children and adolescents in a large, 2-wheeled vehicle environment.

We used data from a society with a large population of motorcyclists to examine the relative risk of injury among children and adolescents aged 0 to 6, 7 to 9, 10 to 12, 13 to 15, and 16 to 17 years old who were involved in single motorized vehicle, multiple motorized vehicle, bicycle-to-vehicle, and pedestrian-to-vehicle collisions. Police reports for 73,232 collision injuries between the years 2003 and 2009 were analyzed using multicategory logit models of the 4 collision types.

Young (particularly 0- to 6-year-old) child bicyclists and pedestrians were the most sensitive to several factors. In collisions, young child bicyclists making U-turns or being struck by forward-moving or right-turning motorized vehicles, on local roads, during the daytime, or at locations without traffic signals had the greatest risk of injury. Similarly, young child pedestrians running, during the daytime, or at locations without traffic signals had a significant risk of injury. After controlling for other factors, we found that 4-wheeled motorized vehicles, not motorcycles, presented a higher risk for injury to child passengers, bicyclists, and pedestrians.

The risk of collision injury varied for the different groups of children in the 4 collision types. To reduce the risk of injury for young children, we recommend the development of road-crossing training tools for parents. In addition, the behaviors of children should be taken into consideration when developing in-vehicle assistance systems.